Thesis (M.B.A.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management; and, (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Aeronautics and Astronautics; in conjunction with the Leaders for Global Operations Program at MIT, 2013.This electronic version was submitted and approved by the author's academic department as part of an electronic thesis pilot project. The certified thesis is available in the Institute Archives and Special Collections.Cataloged from department-submitted PDF version of thesisIncludes bibliographical references (p. 71-73).This work focuses on the application of a streamlined version of Multi-Attribute Tradespace Exploration (MATE) as a first-order analysis tool to aid in the selection of CubeSat communication systems. As CubeSats have become more capable, their need to support ever-increasing amounts of mission data has become imperative. However, the selection of a communications system is complex endeavor with multiple competing objectives and multiple stakeholders. This already challenging environment is compounded by the fact that CubeSats often operate with minuscule budgets on reduced timelines. So, in order to aid the decision maker while maximizing value, we show that MATE can be applied as a first-order analysis tool.by Clayton B. Crail.S.M.M.B.A
